OSRM vs Tangram
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted maps & gis options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
OSRM
High-performance routing engine for OpenStreetMap
VS
Tangram
Flexible WebGL map rendering engine
| Feature | OSRM | Tangram |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Language | C++ | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,955 | ★ 2,335 |
| First released | 2012 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Google Directions API | Mapbox GL JS, Google Maps |
Why pick each one
Choose OSRM if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Choose Tangram if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is OSRM or Tangram better?
Neither is universally better. OSRM has the larger community, while Tangram is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are OSRM and Tangram free and open-source?
Yes. OSRM is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Tangram under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OSRM and Tangram with Docker?
OSRM: yes. Tangram: check the project docs for container support.